Upon arriving at the border I had to pay Q10 to cross the bridge in our microbus. Then I drove up and past the Guatemalan immigration area and parked in their lot on the other side of the gate. Then, while the family waited in the bus I took all 6 passports up to the exit line. It was pretty straightforward, I got our exit stamps and then went to talk to the people about the vehicle. Our bus has Guatemalan plates so I showed my passport, US driver's license and registration card for the micro (tarjeta de circulación). I thought I would get some sort of form since everybody told me that I had to go talk to them, but they looked everything and then waved at me to leave. I'm not sure how I would prove if I came back a month from now that I had spoken to them, but I'm sure they know what they're doing.
So I returned to the micro after exchanging Q400 for 100 Belize dollars and drove through the fumigation area. There I had to pay $8 Belize (or $4 US.)
In front of you is the Belize immigration hall. Everybody has to leave the vehicle and walk down the hall with any bags you may have. We didn't take the cooler with drinks in it. It is again, pretty straightforward without any forms to fill out or anything to pay. They stamp your passport and write down your name. At customs they search your bags and after giving me another stamp for my vehicle asked me to go back and pull it up. They stopped me, asked me what was in the cooler, looked to make sure I was telling the truth and waved me on to pick up the family waiting in the sun.
From there you drive to the white building in front of you where you will buy your Belize vehicle insurance. I have no idea what it covers but for 24 hours on our micro they charged me $24 Belize.
After that everything was fine. Normally there is a checkpoint before leaving the border town where the police will check your vehicle papers and remind you that you're not in Guatemala any more and have to buckle your seat belts, but there wasn't one that day.
We normally eat at a Mennonite restaurant in Spanish Lookout called Golden Corral (hilarious I know...not part of the chain) but because they are closed in the afternoons (I think 2-5pm) we stopped at the San Ignacio Resort Hotel to eat at the Running W Steakhouse. It was fantastic and will become a regular stop for us.
We returned to the border at 5pm. This is where it gets tricky because you don't want to have too many Belize dollars on the other side because they rip you off in the exchange rate going back, but you have to pay an exit tax. They only accept Belize dollars (not US or Guatemalan Quetzales.) The tax is $30 Belize/person (not including children but I'm not sure what the cutoff is). Plus there is another tax posted at $7.50 Belize. The problem is that I've only been charged the $7.50 tax once in 4-5 times doing this. So do you take the chance that you won't have to pay or do you go ahead and exchange to have your bases covered? I covered my bases since having an extra $30 Belize (for the 4 adults) won't kill me since I'll be back in 3 months.
They didn't end up charging me after all.
After paying this tax and getting your receipt you take your passports to the immigration table to get your exit stamp.
They then sent me to the Entrance side of the hall to talk to Customs about getting my passport note signed. It was then that I could go get the vehicle and pick up my family for the drive again through fumigation (this time Q40, more than what Belize charges you). In Guatemala, everybody waited in the micro while I took the passports again but this time to the Entrance side where I quickly received my stamps as well as an offer by the nice immigration official to show me around El Salvador if I would ever like to see the coast there. He lives close to that border. Nothing to pay in Guatemala, nothing to do with the vehicle since it has plates, and nobody checked to see if I had purchased anything.
Everything on that border is very relaxed and the people are very willing to give direction if you're not sure what to do. We had a good day but the boys were very happy to get home after driving around so much. Plus, we have another 90 days in Guatemala and my parents got some extra stamps on their passports.
I was so impressed at the laid back attitude of this border crossing when I crossed in June. Easiest border crossing experience ever. Very good description.
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